1. Technical Field
The invention relates to generally to material handling systems, and particularly to palletizer for arranging articles on a pallet.
2. Related Prior Art
A palletizer is operable to place objects into an organized pattern and place the objects onto a pallet. It is known to provide such palletizer with a container conveyor assembly, a pattern-making apparatus to organize the objects into a pattern, a pallet dispenser, a separator sheet dispenser and a main hoist for holding the pallet in a position to receive a layer of objects and to move the pallet and layers of objects so as to receive an additional layer of objects.
The invention provides a separator sheet handler assembly for use with a palletizer to place an individual sheet on the upper surface of a tier of objects to separate the tier of objects from the next tier of objects to be placed on top of the sheet. The separator sheet handler assembly is operable so that separator sheets are precisely placed in position on the upper surface of a tier of objects.
More particularly, the separator sheet handler assembly includes a two-stage handler: the first stage selects a single sheet from a stack of sheets and positions the sheet in a highly precise manner at a staging position; the second stage picks the sheet at the staging position and transports the sheet onto the tier of objects. The first stage separator sheet handler lifts a separator sheet from a stack of separator sheets, and includes apparatus for shearing the uppermost sheet away from the next upper sheet so that only a single sheet is drawn by the first stage handler to the staging position. The second stage handler moves in tandem with a sweep apparatus for moving objects onto a pallet. The second stage handler picks up the staged separator sheet and places the separator sheet under a transition surface or tilt plate provided by the sweep apparatus. This aspect of the separator sheet handler provides a means of capturing the separator sheet and preventing the sheet from moving away from the precise location in which the second stage separator sheet handler leaves the separator sheet.
Because the separator sheet is accurately positioned at the staging position, the second stage of the handler can quickly move the separator sheet over the tier of objects without having to reposition the sheet or provide locator surfaces adjacent the tier of objects for positioning the sheet. Another advantage of the invention is the provision of a separator sheet handler that does not require guards for preventing fly-away separator sheets from becoming fouled in other components of the palletizer. Also, the separator sheet handler assembly is a modular unit that can be used with existing palletizer, so that retrofitting existing palletizer and modular construction of palletizer with the separator sheet handler assembly is made possible.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following detailed description, claims and drawings.